Re: AS/400 data inquiry via telephone

Kirk:
There are many voice response units (IVR) out there that will interface with
the AS400.  It has been a number of years since I have done any projects
like this so I am not up to date on the technology.  The unit that I have
used in the past was from a company called Rydex Industries (Vancouver, BC I
believe).  The unit attached to the AS400 via a twinax interface, and could
support up to 4 phone lines.  You basically wrote RPG with some imbedded
special commands to control the i/o to and from the voice unit.  Then you
sent the "special" RPG through a pre compiler that converted the code to RPG
that could be compiled.  Part of the pre compilation was specifying the name
of a PC file on the IVR unit that would be "played" when a certain action
happen.  (like, when the unit answered, play a file called welcome.wav that
contained the greeting).  All the voice passages had to be recorded on the
PC/IVR unit and then the RPG program would reference the passage that it
need to play.  Of course the down side to this is that you have to pre
record all possible responses.
I believe there are unit on the market that will "read" a text string in a
synthesized voice.  All in all it was not that difficult of  a task.  The
only real "problem" that I remember is entry of Alpha charters on a 10 key
telephone.  There are ways it can be done with combinations of keys, but it
is cumbersome.
HTH,
CJG
Carl Galgano
EDI Consulting Services, Inc.
540 Powder Springs Street
Suite C19
Marietta, GA  30064
770-422-2995
mailto: cgalgano@ediconsulting.com
http://www.ediconsulting.com
EDI, Communications and AS400 Technical Consulting

-----Original Message-----
From: Kirk Yates <kirk.yates@usa.net>
To: Midrange-L List <midrange-l@midrange.com>
Date: Wednesday, July 07, 1999 12:02 PM
Subject: AS/400 data inquiry via telephone


>I'm gathering information for a virtual report card project.  The idea
>has come up to allow parents to get information on their students
>progress via telephone.  Does anyone have or know of a product that will
>help with this interface?  The information to be presented to the parent
>will reside on an AS/400 and may include grades, attendance, teacher
>comments, etc.  Naturally we need some way to authenticate the person
>calling in.
>
>Thank you.
>--
>Kirk Yates
>Director of Data Processing
>Rockwood School District
>
>
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